Thursday 19 April 2018

Caveat Emptor.

For those of you not "au fait" with Mercantile Law or Latin,the phrase Caveat Emptor means let the buyer beware!
I was at a car boot sale on Sunday(at Hexham) and bought an Early Learning Centre wooden castle from a man who will for ever be called THE BASTARD!!-however in his defence I didn't ask if all the pieces were in the battered old box(hence,let the buyer beware!) and he didn't have to tell me if any bits were missing!! Imagine my amusement when,on opening the battered old box,just the main bits were missing!!!-silly old me! however having paid THE BASTARD most of my weekly pension(he actually only charged me £3!) I was determined to get something out of the deal-and,yes,you've guessed it, another project was born!
I made up the pieces I had,which were three of the sides,and a Gateway,and tried to solve how I could make a complete fort-remember in my world there are no such things as problems-only solutions!!


THE BASTARD must have a warped sense of humour-he even included the instructions on how to build the parts that were missing-ha bloody ha!!


This is the three walls built,and the gateway.................................


Nice piece,the whole(that's a bloody laugh!) fort is made out of wood and is coloured !


Part of the back wall is collapsible,to simulate damage-very clever and very well made.


The whole of the back wall-impressive.
My problem was what could I do to make the front wall look good and incorporate the gateway-the solution was simple-I would photo-copy one of the side walls a few times,stick the copies onto a length of pre-measured cardboard,and that should do the trick!!


No sooner said than done,all I had to do now was stick the gateway onto the cardboard........


Done,now to carefully cut the doorway out-this took no time at all,and the result was............


Complete,and ready to be fixed between the existing walls.



Two views of the "new" fort-who's laughing now,THE BASTARD or me????
However whence "fannying about" with the completed fort,I wondered what it would look like if I extended the left hand wall using the new front wall,and......................


OMG!-if I made a couple of corner sections and some more straight sections,I could have a fort/town as big as I needed,the sky's the limit-ah well,it's off to B&Q tomorrow to buy some hardboard!!
Any comments??






















































16 comments:

  1. I hate being shafted by bad salesmen.

    You have done very well with the bits you have, and am sure your extensions will make this a lovely terrain piece!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Herkybird,good to hear from you again,he wholst laff,laughs less,well,you know what I mean(??)
      thanks for comment,and it certainly will make an appearance soon!
      johnc(william)

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  2. Fantastic work from the pieces of the BASTARD's challenge.
    You have in fact rescued good fortune from his vile trickery.

    Being a vengeful type however, I would be seeking to sell him a record from his favourite band, with a DEEP scratch on it, at the next garage sale...then nip home for a nice cup of tea with 'vengeance complete' written on the mug.

    That's how the ideal world should work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Duc de Gobin-if only we lived in an ideal world!!!
      Keep reading and commenting,
      johnc(william)

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  3. Very nice! Great solution to your dilemma.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Doug,Idle hands are the devil's tools!!!
      johnc(william)

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  4. Not very nice is it now you know how I felt after being Horribly Mugged in Scotland.
    Don't think I will ever get over it!!!

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    Replies
    1. Brian,I thought you were never going to mention that incident again(??)
      johnc

      Delete
  5. There's no stopping you! Well done, John :-P

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chris,I just can't help myself!!
      Got your list today,and am working on a scenario!
      johnc

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  6. That really is very impressive. There is a faint echo of the old Improbability Drive from the Hitch-hiker's Guide - creating something from nothing at all, by the mere fact of it's being impossible. The idea of photocopying the bits you have to improvise the missing parts is excellent. If only you'd paid the seller with a photocopy of the money.

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    Replies
    1. Cheers MSFoy(the rubber legged boy) glad you liked the effort,and your suggestion of paying THE BASTARD with photocopied money is hilarious!!
      johnc(william)

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  7. £3!! Bargain at twice the price even with the bits missing... but I come from the expensive south coast so we're easily pleased... :o))

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    Replies
    1. Hi STW,I wanted to haggle with THE BASTARD,but my wife said it would be impolite!!
      johnc(william)

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  8. Make sure that if you bump into the "B@$+rd" again to thank him on a very rare item you were able to resale for £100!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Tomo,great idea,thanks for comment.
      johnc(william)

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